On Friday, January 24, 2025 at 12:33:45 PM PST, Frank Leonhardt via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> The theory that the earth is flat is clearly disproven. Aristotle worked > it it was basically spherical, yet crackpots believe it's flat to this > day - often because their scripture said otherwise. Aristotle!?! Eratosthsenes calculated the diameter of the earth from the annual vertical shadow in the well at Syene, the shadow of a stick observed at the same time in Alexandria, geometry, and the best distance data available at his time. (Famously, allegedly from professional message couriers -- runners -- counting steps.) Ancient Greeks inferred that the world was round from, amongst other facts, that the hulls of ships disappeared over the horizon before the masts. (On general, lower parts disappeared before upper parts, and no matter in which direction the ship went; and the same happened no matter where it's viewed.) And that the horizon retreats when you climb a mountain, no matter where the mountain. And 40% of US adults reject evolution and believe that humans were created in their current form within the past 10,000 years. (Gallup, 2019)
